Combatives

Strike, Cut, Escape

April 6, 2011 | Posted by calebgiddings in Blog, Combatives, Knife, Training 4 comments

“I carry a gun so I don’t have to get in knife fights.” Anyone who’s been around the self-defense industry for any length of time has probably heard someone say that. In fact, I’ve been guilty of saying it once or twice myself. The problem with that statement is that even as concealed carry expands across the nation, there are plenty of places where an armed citizen still cannot carry their firearm. Post offices, schools, bars (in certain states), and of course many people are barred from carrying firearms in their place of employment.

Spyderco Native – pink

Enter the humble pocket knife. The Spyderco Native pictured wouldn’t raise many eyebrows, whether it was pink or black, it’s just something that you can carry around in your pocket to open boxes with, cut an apple, or take a thread off a shirt with. Most small knives are so innocuous that the majority of the population doesn’t think it’s odd when a person carries one, because it’s just a useful tool for everyday life.

What many people don’t realize though, is that with the right practice it’s also a serious self-defense tool when your gun is unavailable. This past weekend, I took InSight’s Defensive Folding Knife 1 class, which focuses on using the common folding knife as a life-saving tool. This isn’t a knife fighting class, but in the words of the instructor David Roberts it is an “anti-grappling class”. The focus of the class wasn’t about trading cuts in a knife fight – instead it took a look at realistic self-defense situations that the average person could find themselves in. Read more